The Life Of Charles Stewart Parnell Vol - I

"i08 CHARLES STEWART PARNELL [1880
an amendment to the Address affirming that,' although in possession of timely warning and information, the Government had not taken adequate steps to alleviate the distress,' and adding that ' it was essential to the peace and prosperity of Ireland to legislate at once in a comprehensive manner on those questions which affect the tenure of land in Ireland, the neglect of which by Parliament had been the true cause of the constantly recurring disaffection and distress in Ireland.' In the debate which followed Sir Stafford Northcote made a statement on the. subject of that distress which we are told' startled' the House. ' The statistics/ says the 'Annual Register,' 'given by Sir S. Northcote from the report of the Kegistrar-General on the agricultural condition of Ireland were startling. It was estimated that there had been a falling off in the principal crops from the yield of the previous year to the value of 10,000,OOOZ. The value of the potato crop was more than 6,000,OOOZ. below the average. . . . Figures of such an enormous deficiency startled many who had been previously disposed to believe that the Irish distress had no serious foundation except in the imaginations of the Home Eulers and anti-rent agitators.' The British Parliament, with characteristic indifference, had turned a deaf ear to the remonstrances of the Irish representatives until famine was upon the land and the fires of agitation were blazing in every district. Even then Ministers pottered with the situation. Of course Mr. Shaw's amendment was defeated by an overwhelming majority—216 against 66—the notion of reforming the land laws of Ireland was scouted, and an inadequate Belief Bill passed.1
1 This Belief Bill was thus described by the present Lord Chief Justice of England before the Parnell Commission: ' The form it took